Merry Christmas- with hot chocolate

In this year’s last post I have planned something unusual for you. Something that close to the end of the year and in the middle of the pre-Christmas rush we tend to forget. A peaceful, quiet moment when we immerse ourselves in the enjoyment of a simple but creamy and delicious hot chocolate and make a summary of the passed year.
This year was extraordinary for me- in both positive and negative sense- full of challenges and experiences. I learnt about life, about myself, about patience and acceptance and had to face with some of my deepest fears. Sometimes the sense of home seemed to be only a volatile and lost illusion but then the moment came when I realised that renovating our house is not the end of the world but a new chapter in my life. A few days before Christmas I got my very first cookbook into my hand, that I made for a multinational company during a year of cooking-baking, photographing and writing- a milestone in the journey I have started several years ago. Except the short holiday in summer I filled Taste of Memories weekly with old-new recipes and I was honoured by being surrounded a food-and life-loving community and also made new friendships by it.
When I was a child I liked a poem very much, which popped into my mind, written by György Végh about three quiet roes. Unfortunately I couldn’t find it in English but the story is about three little roes who start a long way to get to the church at Christmas Eve to see the Baby Jesus who is waiting for them. They are tired and cold, there is a storm so Baby Jesus sends them his angels to help them to get to him. I liked the way my mother read it to us- she can read aloud beautifully- we could almost sense the dark and cold winter night, hear how snow cracks under the roe’s feet and the bells ringing. It is a religious children’s poem but it has its metaphor: we start our journey toward our dream and although it can be a difficult, hard way to get there, but we will receive some help and our dream can be fulfilled.
I would like to wish you merry Christmas and a very happy New Year filled with joyful moments, with love and understanding to each other and of course with lots of tastes, scents and memories.
With love,
Judit

Hot chocolate
(based on the recipe by József C. Dobos published in his book “Hungarian-French Cookbook” in 1881)
Ingredients for every cup:

150 ml milk
40 g dark chocolate (preferably 70 % cacao content)
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 egg yolk
50 ml cream
1 teaspoon of powdered sugar
reszelt csokoládé a díszítéshez
Bring milk to boil and dissolve chocolate in it. Beat sugar and egg yolk until it gets foamy and add chocolate milk to it while stirring continuously. Put it back to the stove and cook for a couple of minutes but don’t stop stirring it! Whip cream with the powdered sugar. Serve the hot chocolate with the whipped cream on top and sprinkle with grated chocolate.

Judit Neubauer is a food photographer, chef and writer living in a small village in Northwestern Hungary. Her bilingual blog, Taste of Memories is about life in the Hungarian countryside. While she is bringing new life into the 90 year-old house and orchard of 18 fruit trees she cooks and bakes her family’s old recipes and tries to preserve traditions and old knowledge about how to live in rhythm and harmony with nature.